County fair chief presents free workshop on event organizing

Feather Publishing

1/6/2015

Those who need to put on an event and want to know where to begin are invited to a “fun and extensive” workshop to be held Jan. 28, 2015, at the Plumas-Sierra County Fairgrounds. “Not only will you learn the many nuts and bolts of putting on a successful event, you will find out many secrets of making it memorable as well,” said organizer John Steffanic.
Add a comment

Board discusses tax exchanges

Debra Moore

Staff Writer

1/5/2015

A frustrating experience for a couple that owns property near La Porte could spare others from a similar fate.

John and Holly Rohrbach want to split a parcel that they own, but to do so requires annexation into the local fire district. An annexation triggers the need for a property tax exchange because the fire district would be entitled to a portion of the tax.
Add a comment

FRC entrepreneurship program gears up for new semester

James WilsonStaff Writer

1/5/2015

The entrepreneurship certification program at Feather River College will have a new face this upcoming semester — that of Rick Leonhardt. Amy Schulz, director of Career Technical Education at the college, will share her teaching duties with Leonhardt for the semester.

“Rick is a perfect fit with his background in finance, his own financial management business with mostly remote clients and, of course, his deep connections to the community,” said Schulz.

Schulz and Leonhardt will team up to teach three courses this spring: financial management for entrepreneurs, preparing effective business plans and a pilot program called virtual entrepreneurship in partnership with the nonprofit SamaUSA.

The overarching goal of all three classes is to prepare business owners for what Schulz refers to as the “new world of work.

“We’re going to be seeing more and more contract work,” Schulz predicted. “This is a gig economy. These classes train people how to compete in this new world of work. It’s a changing economy that people need to adapt to.”

Leonhardt is the perfect person to navigate students through the new world of business, said Schulz. Leonhardt himself telecommutes, living in Quincy while partnering in a business based out of San Francisco that creates educational content for financial websites.

“I’ve wanted to teach some classes for quite a while,” said Leonhardt. “If we can provide opportunities for people to make money and stay here, then what a great thing. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

The financial management course will explore the costs associated with starting a business, profit projections and how to reduce costs. Typically in the past, Schulz said, most of the students were either about to start a business or already owned one.

“It’s not a traditional class,” Schulz explained. “Really, the work is on the students to do the research. When they come back to class we can evaluate that.”

The course on preparing an effective business plan will have students plan and map out how to execute a new venture. Students will also learn techniques in developing sales pitches and create a video pitch for online crowd funding.

“Business planning is sometimes kind of intimidating,” said Leonhardt. “The great thing is this class breaks it up into small steps. It’s less intimidating. It’s a great way to put structure there.”

The final course of the semester is the virtual entrepreneurship class. The course is an on-campus class that utilizes the high-tech resources available at the college.

Despite what its name implies, the course won’t train students to enter the tech field. Rather, the course is designed for entrepreneurs in other fields that wish to further their business in today’s marketplace environment. Since technology continues to advance, the course’s curriculum constantly changes.

“As technology keeps getting more and more advanced, the way business is conducted does too,” said Leonhardt.

“It’s not like you can buy a textbook for this. It’s constantly evolving,” added Schulz.

The class is open to all levels of freelancers with all levels of experience using new technology.

Those interested in taking any of the courses can register online at frc.edu.

SIDEBAR

Entrepreneurship certification program courses available at Feather River College in 2015